When It Comes To Medical Pot, Rats Are Smarter Than Our Politicians

You can learn a lot from a rat -- especially if the subject is medical cannabis.

According to a just-published study from the University of Milan -- you didn't actually think medicinal marijuana research took place in this country, did you? -- the administration of whole-plant cannabis extracts provides superior pain relief compared to the administration of the plant's isolated components (such as THC) in an animal model of neuropathic pain.

"[T]he use of a standardized extract of Cannabis sativa ... evoked a total relief of thermal hyperalgesia, in an experimental model of neuropathic pain, ... ameliorating the effect of single cannabinoids," investigators reported. "Collectively, these findings strongly support the idea that the combination of cannabinoid and non-cannabinoid compounds, as present in [plant-derived] extracts, provide significant [therapeutic] advantages ... compared with pure cannabinoids alone."

Ironically, US lawmakers and bureaucrats have long argued just the opposite -- maintaining that the therapeutic use of the plant should remain illegal, but that its "active ingredients ... could be isolated and developed into a variety of pharmaceuticals, such as Marinol."

So if rats can deduce that whole cannabis works better as a medicine than a single synthesized molecule, what's stopping our politicians from reaching this same conclusion?

Comments

[gfk]

You can't take a pill when you are throwing up. You can smoke pot though. Duh. It's gotta be about the money being made by keeping it illegal. Gotta be.

[Binea]

Pot helps people with severe to mild tourettes syndrom too.it has medicinal value,so why not make it legal for those who need it ? I wouldn't want pot sold in every diner or store vending machine like cigs were,or a pot store next to every liquor store,But we should be able to get it in whatever form works best at the local pharmacy,by prescription.

[Halsey]

On Monday I got the dreaded phone call that I have breast cancer..."if" I have to have chemo..you better bet your bottom dollar (or euro)..that I'll puff away... I don't like pot anymore...but..if it will help me keep an appetite, etc... Lucky for me..I have friends who still toke up once in a while...


Stupid stupid law....it's insane..

[mexamerican]

good luck. keep strong. my mom in law just went through it and she's doing well.

[mexamerican]

good luck and keep strong. my mom in law just got through w/ treatments last year and she's doing well. my good thoughts go out to you and your family.

[WorkingClass]

The drug companies pay the politicians to prefer synthetic pot. Rats don't have money because they don't have pockets. If rats had pockets they would be just like politicians.

[Boris]

My mother had chemo. The chemo destroyed her appetite until she withered away. A family member offered to make her tea from pot to encourage her appetite. She refused to use it because it was illegal. The family member screamed at me....shaking her head that she was going to die because she didn't want to do anything illegal. It reminded me of TV in the '80's where Reagan's anti pot campaign went to extremes, to the point of saying that giving heroin and other end of pain-end of life drugs was just wrong...it sent the wrong message to kids.

The war on drugs benefits politicians and lobbyists...An old friend once told me, cynically, that even if marijuana was a cure for cancer, it would make no difference. There is too much money to be made by keeping it illegal.

[mirrimatmlw]

Any cancer patient who has tried both pot and Marinol for relief of nausea and anorexia could have told them that, too. (Plus, the word is that Marinol does not have the significant mood-improving effects that help cancer patients just as much as the anti-emetic ones.)

[finn929]

I don't understand why, if we can do it in a safe way, we can't legalize medical marijuana. This has always remained a mystery to me.

[FunkyP]

Because then anyone can grow their own medicine, instead of getting the 'patented' version from big Pharma.

[ImmanuelGoldstein]

Nice try but this isn't about any actual scientific information on pot. It's about getting revenge on the 'Sixties'. Scientific fact have NOTHING to do with the War on Certain Drugs.

[leftLibertarian]

All drugs should be legalized. The government has no business in telling me what I can and can not put into my own body.

[ElIngeniero]

Up to a point. Certain drugs are psychopathogens, either instantly (PCP) or over time (methamphetamine, alcohol). But the better bet is treat drug consumption as a public health issue, while enforcing prohibitions against the worst psychopathogens.

Legalized marijuana and opiates would pretty much save the combined federal, state and county level criminal justice systems something on the order of $100B a year, help defund terrorism and organized crime, and reduce demand for the drugs that represent a real public health hazard. I'd probably add cocaine to that list as well, but not amphetamines.

[RoloTomassi]

Yup, you've got it.

But as long as the CIA & DEA have there sideline operations and covert budgets hinging on illegal drugs [who else can sell a product, arrest you for buying it, and then resell it?], nothing will change.

And sadly, no one politician in DC has the balls to crusade against this nonsensical legislation and government criminality.

Oh, and for the rightwingnuts who will come along to deny government involvement in drug trafficing, ask yourselves this:

Why is it that every nation we send advisors or our troops [and the CIA] into, the drug production ALWAYS vastly increases? Do you really think that's just incidental?

The US government works against its citizens through drug laws and covert drug trafficing; the longterm GOP-driven goal is to incarcerate as many poor and AA citizens as possible for use as slave labor. if Obama doesn't seriously impact this situation, then he's no better than the rest....

[jvarga]

Any limitations at all? Drunk driving laws ok or no since the government is daring to tell us what we can or can't do with our bodies?

[FunkyP]

Deliberately misleading
Libertarian said what we put in our bodies, not what we do once 'under the influence'